D&D General House of the Dragon has me thinking about Succession

yeah I have been considering the moment when the oldest son (who was raised to be king) realized he would never be... and I am of 2 minds... did he except and join her as a step son advisor, or did he make a play and miss?
I could see him gathering his forces, and at the planning session there being a King John and his barons moment. "You would be a great king, m'lord, but with her we'll have political stability through my gran' kid's time. Go home."
 

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@GMforPowergamers you seem to feel (based upon a few posts), that by a child inheriting the throne and taking it on as soon as they come of age this is a tearing apart of family alliances and somehow a disruption of good order.
no the tearing apart was the idea of someone marring with the intent to kill and steal title... I just don't see a benefit (especially when blood carries no power) to not having the best fit of the family to rule.
Step back and think about that again for a second. The individual coming to the throne is a child of the deceased king and the elf queen (or queen-consort, depending on your model). They are literally a combination or mingling of the blood of two families.
it could be or it could be his eldest from his previous marriage (I have spent some time brain storming more reason) and I don't see why we would tell a elven sage/mystic to stop ruleing cause the son has a better claim.
 

I could see him gathering his forces, and at the planning session there being a King John and his barons moment. "You would be a great king, m'lord, but with her we'll have political stability through my gran' kid's time. Go home."
yeah I have been thinking of that too. I went with when he turned 26 the empire was at war, and it just made sense not to switch leadership mid war... and after the war there was a moment like this.
 

so I have a whole family line (not the whole tree just main line) but it may be too short... I have to work on it a bit but I hope everyone likes this. I added president for all of the moments to make the queen regent make sense.

King Greymalkin Daystrom had married Queen Elina Nightrush as both were the first born of each human kingdom, and as such already merged two powerful families. They were not King and Queen when married though, they did marry 1 month before the Great Council though. Some Historians say that this was a ploy as part of a campaign for the royal line (and if so it worked)



The two of them had 2 legitimate children Randor Daystrom I and Lilandra Daystrom I. (sorties of both having bastards are common, but no one has hard proof)

Both Children married, Randor to Sesma a powerful half elf noble, and Lilandra to Dareoo darksteel a Dwarven lord. Randor and Sesma had 2 sets of twins, but neither made it to there 3rd birthday, so they named there Niece Lilandra and Dreoo's daughter as Heir. They did finally have a child that lived, but Alexandra Darksteel took the thrown anyway. She had 7 children between 2 human husbands (she out lived both) However she married her 2nd born child a Daughter named Semsma to the So of Randor and Sesma.

Semsma and Michael Daystrom had twins, Randor and GreyMalkin II who both compeated for the title of heir. Randor was tecniily eldest by minutes, but Greymalkin II got the title (the fact that this randor spent his life not marrying and living with his sworn sword 'the knight of daisies' may have something to do with this...

King Greymalkin II had elven dwarven and multi human bloodlines so it was expected to marry a halfling nobel but he didn't he married a human commonor for love (not very beloved of the other nobles). They had three children. They both grew old enough to see the birth of 2 grandsons.

When Greymalkin II died at the age of 71, the family decided that his wife(their mother) would remain queen until she was ready to pass it down. She lived almost 8 years before Alexander became king (at the age of 50)

King Alexander was Married to Queen Evenstar, and they had twins twice. When Queen Evenstar died young the king never remarried. There second older Andor became king shortly there after when Alexander stepped down do to mental issues.

King Andor I married Queen Ranostar, and this is another intresting moment where they had no legitimate children, but on her death bed at the age of 48 Queen Ranostar begged her husband to legitimize his oldest bastard, he did and King Aliester took the thrown only a half dozen year later.

King Aliester took 3 wives (not all at once) 2 died in child birth and 1 he divorced then she fled south to the shadow of the mountain!

King Allester's 3rd daughter became the heir, and was married to an orc warrior of the frost wolves... and he almost caused a civil war himself... but he died, peacefully in his sleep at a young age and she remarried a cousin Queen Geywalker

Lilandra II was born of this 2nd marriage almost right after the wedding and her brother only 2 years later Andor II.

Brother wed sister, and the two jointly ruled until King Phenton was born... although if Andor was the father was quite the controversy.

King Phenton Married Queen Margirie, and they had a single son, King Greymalken III, but when King Phenton was lost at sea Queen Margirie took over as queen regent... when she remarried the 'royal consort' title was born. Consort Oliver and Queen Margirie ruled until King Greymalken was 26... and there was some disagreement on how it should be handled.

Queen Margirie was allowed to continue to be regent queen until her late 60's when she steped down offically making the 32 year old King Greymalken III king.

King Greymalken had 7 children over 7 mistresses but never married, but legitimized "all royal bastards" and almost caused another war... but he then named his youngest son heir... and then stepped down at the age of 44 allowing King Franklin I to take over.

King Franklin married Queen Lilandra III(not incest though) and she had twins, but only King Randor III lived to be an adult. He took the thrown when both the king and queen took sick, and immediately married a noble that had both human and dwarven blood Queen Jasmin.



Queen Jasmin birthed Prince Randor IV after almost 30 hours of labor... when 2 years later she was pregnant with twins it was not expected to go well... The Twins Prince Andor III and Princess Gray were born in sweet and pain on a bed of blood... Queen Jasmin did not survive.

King Randor remarried 7 years later to Queen Elanas Mystralath a descendent of both the last high elf queen and a noble huntsman of the wood elves (but both more then 1 generation removed) they had 3 children as well Prince Mytra, Princess Aneetie and Prince Leland.

King Randor died in the gnoll uprising leading knights to victory. Leaving Queen Elanas as regent.

When Prince Randor IV turned 26 the question again reared up of what to do. However the constant attacks from the demons of otherworld meant that it was a bad time to change leadership. Prince Randor took the title of Seneschal and helped rule as part of her court.

As Randor IV got older and older though, the regnant did not. She also had many years of leadership and mystic power over him.

Queen Regent Elanas has sat the thrown well past her children and even grandchildren grew old and died (let alone her half children). She was seen as a good and fair queen, an expert in politics law and having both magic and arcane lore as well.

She however never remarried, and most say that even several hundred years later still mourned the love of her life King Randor III.
here is the end of it...
King Randor died in the gnoll uprising leading knights to victory. Leaving Queen Elanas as regent.

When Prince Randor IV turned 26 the question again reared up of what to do. However the constant attacks from the demons of otherworld meant that it was a bad time to change leadership. Prince Randor took the title of Seneschal and helped rule as part of her court.

As Randor IV got older and older though, the regnant did not. She also had many years of leadership and mystic power over him.

Queen Regent Elanas has sat the thrown well past her children and even grandchildren grew old and died (let alone her half children). She was seen as a good and fair queen, an expert in politics law and having both magic and arcane lore as well.

She however never remarried, and most say that even several hundred years later still mourned the love of her life King Randor III.
 

Amrûnril

Adventurer
blood seems a very antiquated idea. if the king/queen is doing a good job (metaphorically the trains are all running on time) why would anyone want to change... and as for 'family' the 3 kids are still a ??? in my mind, what happened when the 1st born came of age to rule at 26? what happened years later when the twins did... there there children.

I completely agree that it's an antiquated idea. But that's going to be true of pretty much any in-universe justification for hereditary monarchy.

On that note, I suspect that a scenario like this might produce some form of anti-monarchist movement in addition to the dynastic claimants. After generations under a single monarch, the humans in the kingdom may take her rule for granted but lack any real recognition of the monarchy as an institution. If no heir is obviously positioned to take over, building a new system may seem more appealing than referring to succession laws that haven't actually been applied in centuries.
 

I completely agree that it's an antiquated idea. But that's going to be true of pretty much any in-universe justification for hereditary monarchy.
I mean when we make up worlds wholesale we can just make it what we want... and in this case what we think makes the best game.
On that note, I suspect that a scenario like this might produce some form of anti-monarchist movement in addition to the dynastic claimants.
Yeah that is a thought I had too... the PCs might decide to 'eat the rich' but since they WOULD be the rich it's a difficult thought.
After generations under a single monarch, the humans in the kingdom may take her rule for granted but lack any real recognition of the monarchy as an institution. If no heir is obviously positioned to take over, building a new system may seem more appealing than referring to succession laws that haven't actually been applied in centuries.
yeah I would love if the PCs decided on 'option C' and made up there own way to run the kingdom.
 

HammerMan

Legend
Interesting idea. My best friend Becky ran a campaign very much like this. I have a few questions though.

Will you have outside threats or is the entire pitch plot the civil war?

Would you allow players to play multi characters maybe a character tree?

And finally a 2 for with a windup
As much as I love D&D I can’t imagine that this game would go over well with many players because so much of the conflict is social political. Do you have a group in mind? Is there a reason D&D is the system for this becuse I would think there better social games.
 

Interesting idea. My best friend Becky ran a campaign very much like this. I have a few questions though.
I would love to hear more about this
Will you have outside threats or is the entire pitch plot the civil war?
yeah, I have a whole set of subplots about other threats to the kingdom and other potential outside allies.
Would you allow players to play multi characters maybe a character tree?
I have gone back and forth on this... like do I run there NPC house hold or do they
And finally a 2 for with a windup
As much as I love D&D I can’t imagine that this game would go over well with many players because so much of the conflict is social political. Do you have a group in mind? Is there a reason D&D is the system for this becuse I would think there better social games.
I have 1 1/2 groups right now (lots of overlap) but as long aswe are virtual i think D&D isit
 



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